During the past several years, a market has arisen where consumer end users or specialty jobbers install decorative bar arrangements onto the bed of pick-up trucks and like vehicles to simulate a professionally installed roll bar. The bar arrangement is decorative since such bars may not afford reliable protection to the occupants of the vehicle should the vehicle be subjected to severe impact forces in a crash and roll over. This is especially true since the bars are often installed by non-professionals for mere appearance sake. Nevertheless, a significant consumer market exists for such bar arrangements if constructed in an aesthetically pleasing arrangement with the tubular members either coated with a black finish, stainless steel or brightly chromed. The bar arrangement typically carries a light bar track with spotlights mounted on the top thereof and extending above the cap of the truck.
Of the various types of decorative bar arrangements in use, one which has found particular consumer acceptance comprises an upstanding U-shaped member secured at its legs to the truck bed. A second angled or kicker U-shaped member with its legs secured to the truck's wheel wells is then positioned relative to the upstanding U-shaped member so that the bight portions of both members are at the same elevation and are parallel to one another in spaced relationship. Spacers are provided to maintain the spaced, parallel relationship between the bight portions and mounted on the spacers is the track lighting bar typically employed in such decorative bar arrangements. Because the spacers provide a convenient point to install the track lighting with wires hidden from view, the kicker member thus described is preferred over other arrangements which would simply provide angled struts attached to the bight portion of one U-shaped member at one end and to the wheel well of the vehicle at the other end. Prior to the present invention, it was known to make universally useable bar arrangements including two U-shaped members having two parallel, adjustable straight portions across the top (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,148,504) and the U-shaped kicker member being rotatably mounted with respect to the U-shaped upright member to accommodate different mounting surfaces. This prior arrangement did not fixedly lock the two parallel top portions into a permanent, fixed position except by presumed friction or welding, which is unavailable to most end users.
The typical installation of the decorative bar arrangement described comprises positioning the upright U-shaped member against the truck cab and securing the leg ends of the U-shaped member to the truck bed by bolting a rectangular base plate thereto. Spacers are then held between the bight portion of the upright member and the bight portion of the kicker member while the legs of the kicker member are rotated into their rest position against the wheel wells of the truck bed at which point the kicker member is clamped to the upstanding roll bar i.e. for example, by means of a C-clamp. The leg portions of the kicker member are fastened to the wheel wells and the spacers then welded to firmly join the bight portion of the kicker member with the bight portion of the upright member. This procedure is conventionally used in constructing tubular space frames for racing vehicles and the like, and is simply adopted for the decorative bar installation. Welding obviously presents a problem if the consumer, who may not have the access to such equipment, is doing the installation. Importantly, if the welding is not carefully done the finish of the assembly is adversely affected.
While the prior art has made some attempt at providing adjustments to the lengths of the various portions of the U-shaped assemblies to achieve a universal application kit, this has not been done in an aesthetically pleasing manner which gives the appearance of a custom fitted application. Furthermore, the adjustable feature, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,184,504 is achieved by fitting a pin into one of a plurality of holes which will not permit slight length adjustments that are sometimes critical to a professional installation appearance. While it is possible for the manufacturer of the decorative bars to pre-weld the kicker member to the upright member so that the leg ends can simply be bolted to the truck bed, this is not feasible not only because of packing and shipping costs, but also because of the huge inventory problems that would be created. That is, while each assembly is unique to a particular truck bed, common tubular elements which need only be slightly modified can fit a wide variety of different truck beds. This cannot be realized if the kicker member bar must be pre-welded at a fixed angle relative to the upright member.